Marcus Aurelius: Quotes about life
Marcus Aurelius was Emperor of Ancient Rome. Explore interesting quotes on life.Source: Meditations
Misattributed
Source: The first citation appears in a translation of Leo Tolstoy's Bethink Yourselves! http://www.nonresistance.org/docs_htm/Tolstoy/~Bethink_Yourselves/BY_chapter08.html by NONRESISTANCE.ORG. The claim made that it is from Marcus Aurelius. Nothing closely resembling it appears in Meditations, nor does it appear in a 1904 translation of Bethink Yourselves http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/bethink-yourselves/8/. The 1904 translation may be abridged, whereas the NONRESISTANCE.ORG translation claims to be unabridged.
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts; therefore guard accordingly.”
Variant: The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
Source: Meditations
VII, 47
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
III, 10
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book III
Context: Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. Short, therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells.
“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
The universe is flux, life is opinion.
The universe is transformation: life is opinion. (Long translation)
ὁ κόσμος ἀλλοίωσις, ὁ βίος ὑπόληψις.
IV, 3
Variant: Our life is what our thoughts make it.
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV
VII, 56
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
“Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.”
Source: Meditations
“Very little is needed to make a happy life.”
ἐν ὀλιγίστοις κεῖται τὸ εὐδαιμόνως βιῶσαι
VII, 67
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
“Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.”
Source: Meditations
“How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life”
Variant: How ridiculous and unrealistic is the man who is astonished at anything that happens in life.
Source: Meditations
“What we cannot bear removes us from life; what remains can be borne.”
Source: Meditations
VII, 61
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII